Chelsea need to buy in January to keep title hopes alive

Although it may prove dangerous to write Chelsea out of the Premier League title race as early as Christmas, there are few optimistic vibes to be coming out of Stamford Bridge at present.

Chelsea’s betting odds have drifted out to 7/2 to win the Premier League and the latest in a line of limp performances against Arsenal has left them six points adrift of table toppers Manchester United, despite having played a game more than the Red Devils.

The demise of the Blues has been almost instant as a blistering start to the campaign led to the belief by some that they would almost have the title sewn up by this point of the season.

However, six points out of a possible 24 has seen the chasing pack catch them and then overtake them in the standings and in a way they are fortunate to be as close as they are to the head of the standings, given the severity of their poor run.

Ancelotti will know that time is potentially running out on his job, given that his results so far are close to mirroring that of Luiz Felipe Scolari, who was sacked after seven months in the job.

One of their biggest problems is the lack of depth in Chelsea’s squad, as Ancelotti had few experienced options to call upon to try to turn things around against Arsenal.

This seems slightly worrying bearing in mind the amount of money that Roman Abramovich has spent since taking over as chairman of Chelsea.

Fortunately, the transfer window is looming where Ancelotti should be able to reinforce his squad to get his title aspirations back on track, assuming that he is given the suitable financial backing by Abramovich.

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